Whats the best way to get help in forming a business plan to show the bank?

Here are some places where you can find help in preparing your business plan:

- Government Mentoring Programs such as SBDCs, which works with community colleges and local business development councils to offer mentoring programs http://www.sba.gov/sbdc/sbdcnear.html ; or the Women's Network for Entrepreneurial Training http://www.sba.gov/womeninbusiness/wnet_...
- Volunteer programs such as SCORE http://www.score.org which is composed of mostly retired executives and entrepreneurs
- Formal mentoring programs such as Athena Foundation http://www.athenafoundation.org/programs/globallinks.html , Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program http://www.helzbergmentoring.org/HEMP/ , or The Aspen Institute MicroMentor Program http://www.micromentor.org
- Professional organizations such as the National Women’s Business Council http://www.nwbc.gov/Mentoring/programs.html

You may want to first check some sample business plans for a restaurant business. Here are some free ones that you can use

Sample Restaurant Business Plan (steakhouse) http://www.bplans.com/spv/3228/2.cfm?affiliate=powerhomeb
Sample Restaurant Business Plan (organic restaurant) http://www.bplans.com/spv/3259/index.cfm?affiliate=powerhomeb

Here are some general resources that can help you write your business plan:

- SBA Business Plan Basics http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/planning/basic.html
- PowerHomeBiz.com Creating a Business Plan section http://www.powerhomebiz.com/startup/businessplan.htm
- Entrepreneur.com Writing a Business Plan section http://www.entrepreneur.com/bizplan/0,7253,,00.html

You may also want to review some sample business plans to see how it actually looks like:

- Bplans.com http://www.bplans.com/sp/businessplans.cfm
- MOOT Corp Business Plan competition winners
http://www.businessplans.org/businessplans.html
- VFinance - View hundreds of real business plans in pdf format. http://www.vfinance.com/home.asp?bps=1&ToolPage=bps_main.asp
- Business Owners Toolkit Sample business plans and information on how to create a plan. http://www.toolkit.cch.com/tools/buspln_m.asp
- PlanWare Planning software and information. http://www.planware.org/
- Virtual Business Plan Walk through the design of a business plan. http://www.bizplanit.com/vplan.html
-SBA Business Planning Guide http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/planning/basic.html
- Small Business Advancement Center http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/business_plan/businessPlan.pdf
- Sample Business Plan General planning guide created by the Canadian Business Service Center. http://www.cbsc.org/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=CBSC_FE/display&c=GuideFactSheet&cid
- Business Plans Index - A subject guide to sample business plans and profiles for specific business types from Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. http://216.183.184.20/subject/business/bplansindex.html

Some recommended books are :

- Business Plans Kit for Dummies
- The Complete Book of Business Plans : Simple Steps to Writing a Powerful Business Plan
- Writing Business Plans That Get Results : A Step-By-Step Guide
- Business Plans For Dummies®
- Your First Business Plan : A Simple Question and Answer Format Designed to Help You Write Your Own Plan

As for starting a restaurant, below are free information and resources that I've found on how to start a restaurant business:

National Restaurant Association http://www.restaurant.org/
Entrepreneur.com Marketing and Promotions of a Restaurant http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,317716-8,00.html
Starting a Restaurant Business http://www.awib.org/content_frames/articles/restaurant.html
RestaurantOwner.com http://www.restaurantowner.com
AllFoodBusiness.com How to Start a Restaurant http://www.allfoodbusiness.com/starting_your_own_business.php
6 Ways to Attract New Customers to Your Restaurant http://www.homebusinesscenter.com/how_to_start/restaurant.html

You may consider the following resources (not free):

Palo Alto's Restaurant Business Plans http://www.bplans.com/st/restaurant.cfm?affiliate=powerhomeb
FabJob.com's Starting a Restaurant Business http://www.fabjob.com/restaurantowner.asp
Entrepreneur.com http://www.smallbizbooks.com/cgi-bin/SmallBizBooks/00047.html

Associations are great resources as well

National Restaurant Association http://www.restaurant.org/
National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (they have excellent training courses for restaurant owners) http://www.nraef.org/
Your state restaurant association (e.g. http://www.ohiorestaurant.org/ , http://www.azrestaurant.org/ , http://www.parestaurant.org/ , http://www.nmrestaurants.org/

If you want in-depth information on starting a restaurant business, I suggest you check out the following books:

The Restaurant Business Start-up Guide (Real-World Business) by Paul Daniels
Opening a Restaurant or Other Food Business Starter Kit: How to Prepare a Restaurant Business Plan and Feasibility Study by Sharon Fullen
Start Your Own Restaurant (and Five Other Food Businesses) (Entrepreneur Magazine's Start Ups) by Entrepreneur Press and Jacquelyn Lynn
Start Your own Restaurant and Five Other Food Businesses (Startup) by Jacquelyn Lynn

Hope that the above resources help

You should contact a Small Business Development Center where you can recieve FREE consulting in start-ups. They have sample business plans and experience opening up businesses. Other groups such as SCORE could also help. SCORE is a group of retired executives who help business's grow.

You will need the help of a good accountant who had some experience in creating business plans in the past.

In school I am actually learning this right now. You can use
THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS
Write out what your goal or (MISSION) are.
Write out what your (OBJECTIVES) are.
Write out your (SITUATION ANALYSIS), your pros and con
Write out your (STRATEGY FORMULATION), how will you overcome your situations.
Write out your (IMPLEMENTATION) once your business is set. In other words carry out your goals.
Write out what your (CONTROL) is. Who is viewing your plans or goals and staying on top making sure this is what needs to be accomplished. Just let me know how it goes and just send me an email to: [email protected]. Good Luck.

go to http:www.sba.gov